Father Christmas abandons traditional whip in Estonia

Father Christmas has abandoned his traditional birch whip in Estonia after a conference of holiday performers decided it was too frightening for children.

4:06PM GMT 07 Dec 2009

Estonia's Father Christmas has traditionally carried a bunch of twigs to keep naughty children in line - although the weapon remained an unused threat. He would remind children that they would not receive presents if they misbehaved.

But at the Baltic nation's annual Father Christmas congress, delegates decided to do away with the whip.

"Good children must grow up without the whip - or the fear of the whip - so we've called upon all Santas to leave them at home from now on," one Father Christmas attending the conference told Estonian television.

But other traditions proved more difficult to update, the Santa noted.

"On delegate asked for the freedom to choose the colour of Santa's coat, saying he feels allergic to red and wants to wear a yellow coat instead, but that request was turned down by the congress," he said.